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Long lines for walk-in voting at Honolulu Hale could not be avoided by many voters Saturday.
"I should’ve come last weekend cause its getting closer to the time yeah so probably everybody’s rushing last minute," says Sam Khen, voter.
"I think it’s a good sign there’s a lot of people out voting and it’s the last day of early voting so I think it makes sense that it’s a little crowded today," says Andrew Odell, voter.
"We’ve been getting over the last couple days a couple thousand people a day just voting at our three sites its been a little over 1000 here at Honolulu Hale every day," says Bernice Mau, Honolulu city clerk.
Despite the long lines, many voters waited because they felt it was important to vote because of the the highly contested races.
"I always think people should vote regardless of it’s the big races or not but I think there are a lot of issues out there especially this year," says Marybeth Laychak, voter.
Over, at the State Capitol, election officials and observers were also busy preparing for general election day with the ballot counting machines being put to the test.
"We’re here to observe the ballot counting process to make sure that the ballots are counted properly and according to procedure," says Dennis Kam, election observer chair.
Checks will be made a few more times on election day before the actual ballots are counted but when the final printout is in, the observer’s job is still not done.
"After the election at two in the morning or whatever time it is we’re finished we run it again and those numbers match," says Kam.
Officials say polling sites may have been changed so you should check your yellow card you received in the mail or the office of elections website.
Now that early-walk in voting is closed you’ll have to vote this Tuesday at your assigned polling place if you do not have an absentee ballot.
Absentee ballots can still be mailed in or dropped off before the polls close on election day or at any polling site.
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State elections officials are also confident that the problems that happened on the Big Island during the primary won’t happen again during the general.
This past week they talked to poll workers on the Big Island about the importance of opening the polling sites on time.
During the primary, that’s what happened, and the first printout was delayed.
"We’ve done all we can to make sure that voting over there goes smoothly.
We feel we’re able to react to any issues that may pop up so we’re fairly confident that they should have a smooth election but we don’t know what’s going to happen on election day," said Scott Nago with the State Office of Elections.
Officials say they also made it a priority to ensure that the supplies for the polling sites were packed properly.
See the original article at: KHON2 Local News
